Dem. Rep. of Congo: Group calls on electronics companies to avoid funding conflict by tracing minerals

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...Raise Hope for Congo Campaign is sounding the alarm: minerals vital to cell phones, computers, digital cameras and other electronics products are fueling the...war...in eastern Congo. As a first step toward educating electronics companies about their role in ensuring that Congo's minerals don't continue to fuel the ongoing crisis, a coalition of 32 organizations...sent a letter outlining our concerns to the 21 largest consumer electronics companies... Enough has received replies from 15 of the 21 companies, as well as a response from the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition, or EICC... These responses provide an opening for dialogue with the industry, but they also show how much work still needs to be done. Here is a summary of the most common responses from the electronics industry [with comments by Raise Hope for Congo Campaign]:... [refers to tracing of minerals & gold by Tiffany, Signet, Wal-Mart]

Electronics manufacturers should trace the minerals they use in order to prove they are not funding fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, campaigners said on Wednesday, but critics said the scheme could do more harm than good..."None of the big electronics companies want to fuel the deadliest war in the world," said an Enough Project strategy paper by John Prendergast, the U.S. based group's co-founder."But at a time of financial crisis, when every penny of profit counts, corporations may continue to turn a blind eye toward Congo's conflict mineral trade," it added... However, mineral dealers and experts worry the initiative could make business in Congo uncompetitive, forcing tens of thousands of small-scale miners out of work and into crime.

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